The “Commodore 64: a visual Compendium” is a Kickstarter for a high-end, coffee table book that celebrates the visual beauty of the worst best-selling computer the Commodore 64. This will be the first book by new publisher Bitmap Books who specialize in high-end books all about computer games. Created by lifelong Commodore 64 fan and Graphic Designer Sam “MrSID” Dyer to combine his passions for visual art and retro gaming.

Sword of Fargoal was remade for iOS and Mac OS by developer Paul Pridham (who created Saucelifter and the upcoming Punch Quest), Emmy award-winning animator Charlie Canfield, and noted British composer Daniel Pemberton (LittleBIGPlanet) to bring the game back. The remake won numerous awards, including “Best Retro Game (iPad division)” for the “2010 Best App Ever Awards” (“Sword of Fargoal Legends,” published by Chillingo/EA). Fargoal has even been recognized by the Guinness World Records 2012, Gamer’s Edition as “Most critically acclaimed ‘Roguelike’ for iOS”.

Endless runner games are very popular at the moment, especially on mobile devices. As they seem to be very sutied to the format but still provide a fast arcade like gaming experience. Punch Quest is an Endless runner game, but with a twist. It dispenses with the simple run and jump format and adds punching, graphics that hark back to games like Double Dragon and Golden Axe, punching, explosion, punching, monsters and so much more punching.

For the iOS version we have conserved the highly praised gameplay exactly like on the original, while at the same time adapting it to excellent play on mobile devices. Further improvements, not possible in the original, include Game Center to compete against your friends, and Daily Leaderboards updates with player comments.

The aim of the game is to collect all of the Karma Crystals, whilst trying to avoid, Ghosts, Zombies and Bouncing Balls ! If you study the level, you will notice that the Ghosts are one of the keys to the Game. Shooting an Elastic Band at them will cause a replication reaction, producing more Enemies and the chance of a Karma Crystal in being dropped. You may also move off the screen and appear on the other side, e.g. move right and appear on the left. Useful, but be careful not to bump into an unsuspecting Enemy !

It will be played in via a download or within the web browser which means it can be played it on on PC, Mac or Linux. The game is being described as isometric action zombie survival RPG. At first glance it looks like PC and Amiga classic UFO: Enemy Unknown (XCOM) crossed with classic PC murder simluator Postal, but developers Indie Stone are promising some very interesting features.

The Wii is also seeing several of these new “interpretations”, as evidenced by Klonoa. The original game of the series appeared nearly ten years ago on the original Playstation, and was a 2.5D platformer with the player’s movement controlled along set paths. Fast forward and the graphical makeover is very good (the dreadful Americanised character voices less so), but the movement restrictions remain. The old-school game mechanics may feel uncomfortable to the new audience drawn to Wii, but there is a real challenge in there.

I do not see the challenge in mastering 100-button combos and posting a video on YouTube about it. One of the biggest problems seems to be balance. There is a fine line between rewarding high levels of skill and letting the player get through the game. Too often it seems easier to button bash than to time and execute moves, particularly when the combos rely on exacting timing. And hacking your way through wave after wave of the same enemy soon loses its appeal.

When Valve announced a sequel to the best-selling Left 4 Dead, you would imagine that the fans would be ecstatic. But no, a developer once renowned for being slow was putting out a sequel too quickly, and worst of all was the perception it would be “abandoning” the original and plans to release new content for it. Signing a virtual petition against Left 4 Dead 2 was a daft idea. But the campaign hit new lows when two leading objectors were given the chance to see the game at Valve’s headquarters – suddenly the two in question were “traitors” and Valve was brainwashing them into liking the game.

One of the biggest problems for Sony was tailoring games to the handheld console. Too often developers tried to shoe-horn a large game more suited to playing at home into a UMD. Gems such as Loco Roco and Patapon were hard to find among the predictable movie licenses and multi-format failures. The Monster Hunter series did wonders in Japan but was slow to propagate worldwide. Gamers bemoaned the lack of a second analogue stick, but did appreciate the ability to download old PS1 games.

Like a lot of Nintendo users, I am a Club Nintendo member and have been frustrated by the service for a long time. First there was the short length of time the good stuff was available. But then, did I really need a Zelda statue or a storage rack shaped like Mario’s cap? (Ignore that small voice from inside me; I call him the Collector and often have to over-rule him). Then came the announcement that points earned from visiting the website (a massive five per day) and adding games to your collection would expire.

The player takes control of a space-adventurer Mike Finn who is ordered by his superiors on Earth to divert his spacecraft to the planet Phoebus to investigate the distress calls broadcast by the members of a previous mission. Finn’s mission is to rescue any survivors of the mission from a psychotic scientist, Triax, exiled there many years before.